Trump officials eye a longer road to Ukraine peace as frustration mounts
[1/3]Municipal
workers repair the roof of a house damaged in a Russian drone strike,
amid Russia's attack on Ukraine, in Kharkiv, Ukraine March 27, 2025.
REUTERS/Violeta Santos Moura/File Photo Purchase Licensing Rights
NEW
YORK/WASHINGTON, April 1 (Reuters) - Senior Trump administration
officials have discussed in recent days the likelihood that the U.S.
will be unable to secure a Ukraine peace deal in the next few months and
are drawing up new plans to pressure both Kyiv and Moscow, according to
two U.S. officials familiar with the matter.
At the start of his administration, President Donald Trump
and his top advisers set out to reach a full ceasefire by April or May.
They hoped to broker a lasting peace deal in the following months.
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But neither agreement appears imminent, the officials said, raising the possibility that the three-year-old war will drag on and that Ukraine will need more Western support for its military operations.
Such
an outcome would be anathema to Trump, a self-styled dealmaker who has
repeatedly promised a quick end to a conflict that has claimed hundreds
of thousands of lives and risks pulling NATO into a direct conflict with
nuclear-armed Russia.
Top
U.S. officials have for weeks complained privately about Kyiv's
handling of the negotiations and what they view as resistance to a minerals deal
with Washington and moving forward with peace talks. But in recent
days, the sources said, officials are increasingly frustrated with
Moscow.
In
a series of meetings and calls over the weekend, officials inside the
White House and State Department acknowledged that Russian President
Vladimir Putin is actively resisting Washington’s attempts to strike a
lasting peace accord and discussed what, if any, economic or diplomatic
punishments could push Russia closer to a deal, the sources said.
The
growing anger toward Moscow, including from the president himself,
marks a shift in the administration's internal deliberations about
Moscow's willingness to negotiate.
Trump
has for weeks said he trusts the Russian president and that he believes
the leader is committed to peace, but the White House has grown wary of
Putin's intentions in recent days, the sources said, though Trump
continues to signal publicly his belief that Putin wants to end the war.
It
is not clear what specific plans the administration may have to
pressure Moscow, but one senior U.S. official said the White House is
continuing to look at additional tariff and sanctions measures it can
levy on the country.
On
Sunday, Trump told NBC News he was "pissed off" after Putin criticized
the credibility of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, and
suggested the U.S. could impose secondary tariffs of 25%-50% on buyers
of Russian oil.
In
a meeting with Baltic foreign ministers last week, U.S. Secretary of
State Marco Rubio told his counterparts that peace in Ukraine was not
guaranteed and indicated the U.S. was still far from securing a deal,
according to a summary of the meeting seen by Reuters.
"There
is a deep frustration with the Russian government over negotiations,"
National Security Council spokesperson James Hewitt said. "President
Trump was clear he will consider imposing secondary sanctions on all oil
coming out of Russia if they are not serious about bringing this
conflict to a peaceful resolution."
The U.S. State Department did not respond to a request for comment.
The Russian and Ukrainian embassies in Washington also did not respond to a request for comment.
Russian
Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said in an interview released on
Tuesday that Moscow cannot accept U.S. proposals to end the war in
their current form because they do not address the issues the Kremlin
believes started the war.
'MAXIMALIST' DEMANDS FROM PUTIN
European and American intelligence officials and analysts have long warned
that Putin is unlikely to negotiate ending the war in Ukraine in good
faith so long as he believes Russia is winning on the battlefield.
After
Trump took office in January, his senior advisers remained hopeful that
three years of sanctions on Russia – and the prospect of either easing
or tightening the economic pressure – would be enough to move Moscow
closer to an agreement.
Now
several of them including Rubio, National Security Adviser Mike Waltz
and General Keith Kellogg, the administration’s Ukraine envoy, are
raising questions about the extent to which Putin can be swayed without
significant concessions from the U.S. and Europe, particularly over
their military operations on the continent.
Over
the past months, Washington has pressured Kyiv and moved closer to many
of Moscow's foreign policy positions. But Putin has made what analysts
have termed "maximalist" demands that are unlikely to be met by the
U.S., Ukraine or Europe.
Those
include demands that the U.S. and NATO roll back military activity in
Europe, especially in countries bordering Russia, and that no
peacekeepers deploy to Ukraine as part of a deal.
The
senior U.S. official said that while the White House is continuing to
look at tariffs and sanctions, Russia is unlikely to be moved by such
economic punishments.
Trump has also expressed renewed frustration with Ukraine, accusing Zelenskiy of trying to back out of the minerals deal.
“He’s
trying to back out of the rare earth deal and if he does that he’s got
some problems, big, big problems,” Trump told reporters on Sunday.
Hewitt said the president views the minerals agreement as "a key part of bringing peace to Ukraine."
Another
U.S. official said officials in the administration are deliberating
amending some portions of the proposed deal to make it more amenable to
Kyiv's economic interests.
U.S.
officials have in recent days tried to broker both a ceasefire for
energy infrastructure and for the Black Sea. The deals have not yet been
implemented.
Despite
initially agreeing to an energy ceasefire, Ukraine and Russia have
continued to attack each other. And while Kyiv has said it is ready to
agree to a Black Sea deal, Russian officials have said Moscow first
needs restored access to certain trade markets and payment systems.
Reporting by Erin Banco and Gram Slattery; Editing by Don Durfee and Daniel Wallis
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